This single pearl from a necklace in the shape of a multi-storey Cong with the typical subdivision, which consists of several faces. These faces or masks are each guided around the corners, for a total of six. Only the middle two have the Liangzhu so characteristic of large, often rimmed, and always enigmatic and magical-looking eyes. In the faces above and below the eyes are simple circles. Several ribbons with very fine ground-in grooves let the question arise, how the witnesses at the time, and what work could be so finely worked. True to the big Cong, the shape of this chain link is extended to one side slightly and the head are provided sides with round collars. Whitish aging of the Jade.

This Jade is published in the book of FILIPPO SALVIATI: THE MYSTERIOUS STONE: Chinese Jades from the Neolithic to the Han from private collections (release date spring 2017).

Notes by Prof. Salviati: This bead is worked in the shape of a miniature cong with three alternating anthropomorphic and animal masks carved in relief at the corners. The masks are finely detailed with thin lines used to stress the large eyes and nose of the animal-like face carved at the centre, and with small spirals engraved between the bands that top the masks with human-like eyes placed at the top and bottom of the bead. The bead, drilled throughout its length with a tubular perforation, is carved from a red-orange type of nephrite similar to that used for the following Liangzhu three-pronged fitting: most of the surface is affected by alterations which have modified the jade and turned it chalky white. Lianzghu burials have yielded a vast amount of variously shaped beads which were used for ornamental purposes. The beads are the smallest of all of Liangzhu items in jade and were obtained by re-working fragment derived from the carving of larger objects. Liangzhu beads with a square cross-section shaped as a miniature cong, as the present Lot, have come to light mostly from sites in Jiangsu province, such as Caoxieshan, Wu county; Fuquanshan, Qingpu county, Shanghai, China; and Sidun, Wujin, Changzhou: see Zhejiang institute of cultural relics and archaeology, Liangzhu wenhua yuqi 良渚文化玉器 (Jades of the Liangzhu Culture), Wenwu chubanshe, Beijing, 1990, Zhejiang 1990, nos.70 and 175-177, and Huang Xuanpei, Gems of the Liangzhu Culture from the Shanghai Museum, Hong Kong Museum of History, Hong Kong 1992, no.69.

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